I'm assuming we are talking about "lutefisk" here. If so, it is the most disgusting rotten smelling crap I have ever been forced to endure. You don't see it much anymore simply because there are ways of preserving food nowadays without destroying it.

Cod prices are up. I prefer it over halibut and fishing cod has been a great way to make extra money until stocks collapsed here in the gulf. Used to see hundreds of pallets of salted fillets in warehouses in Dutch weeping liquid. Europe is the biggest market Spain especially. Like swift4me says, it’s still traditional food there. Curious how much it costs over there.

Move to Newfoundland if you want salted cod. Every store sells it. Same thing with tubs of salted beef. Thecodfish industry is all but over now, but there’s still plenty for sale there.

There’s an interesting connection between the Newfies love of rum and salted cod. Back in the pirating days in the Atlantic, pirates would sail a couple ships to Newfoundland to procure barrels of salted codfish. They in turn, would bring barrels of dark rum to trade for the fish. To this day, dark rum is the favorite liquor on the Rock. Go to a store that sells booze, 3/4 of the inventory is rum.

So with dried fish? We made it with dried beef. You put it on toast or are talking two different things?

Yes, that "Chipped beef on toast" was the original SOS. My biological father used to feed me that. He learned to make it while in the CCC's. I love that stuff as much as codfish gravy......that is what we originally called the codfish stuff. We always (or "alus" as my Grandad said)ate that on toast as well, and after time we just called that SOS too.

My dad was in the CCCs also many moons ago.Then he joined the merchant marines and then the marine corps after that.Chipped beef on toast is what we called SOS.We had it a lot when I was a kid.We also ate salted cod but we called it pesce stocco or baccala.We baked it in the oven with potatoes and veggetables.Any Italian import store had it here in wooden barrels.Used to be cheap,,not any more.

Around me good quality salted cod is between $9 and $20 a kilo depending on the cut and the size of the pieces. More of it sold on the Spanish side but plenty here in France too.

Those are good books. He also wrote one called The Basque History of the World. At one time the Basques were some of the wealthiest people in western Europe because of their ship building, cod and copper and iron smelting. One of Columbus' three ships was built a half an hour from my house, and Lafayette sailed from that same port.